GA Tech Library

Georgia Tech Library

The Georgia Tech Library and Information Center is an academic library that serves the needs of students, faculty, and staff at the Georgia Institute of Technology. The Association of College and Research Libraries (ACRL) recognized the library's effort to reinvent itself by awarding it a 2007 Excellence in Academic Libraries Award. The Georgia Tech Library is located in the center of campus and is open almost 24/7 when school is in session, closing only Friday evenings, Saturday evenings, and Sunday mornings. Among the Library staff members are subject specialists in 35 disciplines.

History

Collections

The Library’s collections include over 2.4 million books, bound periodicals and serials, including about 900,000 government documents, 2.7 million technical reports, over 197,000 cartographic materials, more than 240 online databases, over 29,000 electronic books and 39,000 e-journals. There is a separate Architecture Library which houses over 45,000 books. The Archives and Records Management department preserves and provides access to the history of Georgia Tech, and includes over 4300 rare books emphasizing the history of science and technology, a 4000-volume science fiction collection, photographic collections, and approximately 1000 manuscript collections.

Services

The Library's two information commons, West and East Commons, provide computer hardware and software geared to the needs of students, including a multimedia center and computers specifically set up for group study, known as the "collaborative computing" desks. The commons areas are a component of the partnership between the Library and the Office of Information Technology (OIT) which has also resulted in the creation of the Resource Center in the Library providing technology support, academic advising, and tutoring.. Also included in the East Commons area is a Jazzman's Cafe.

The Library’s digital initiatives include the institutional repository, SMARTech, which captures, stores, indexes, preserves, and redistributes in digital form the intellectual output of the Institute’s students, faculty, and researchers. Another digital service is ePage@Tech, which provides assistance publishing electronic books, journals, and conference proceedings; hosting of conferences, symposia, and lecture series, and captures instructional materials and multimedia.